Dog Meat hit the news recently with the South Korean parliament approving legislation, expected to come into force in 2027, banning the sale and slaughter of dogs for their meat, although the consumption of Dog Meat itself will still remain legal. Among certain sections of Korean society, mainly the older generations, boshintang, dog meat stew, had been considered a delicacy while the younger generations, more heavily influenced by pervasive Western “culture” consider the practice beyond the pale.

Is this the end of a repulsive practice or is it another example of traditional foods falling by the wayside as we rush to homogenise what we eat globally? Not being a dog lover and having a slight tendency towards zoophagy, although not as extreme as that exhibited by William Buckland, I am fairly ambivalent.

The thought does strike me, having watched a documentary of the aftermath of the crash of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in a remote part of the Andes on October 13, 1972, that our ability to exercise our tastes in foodstuffs only persists in stable conditions. In extremis, our innate instinct for survival might well mean that cannibalism is on the menu, although a spot of autophagy might be self-defeating.

Still, there are always Hot Dogs. Some believe that the name of the long, thin sausages was coined because of the practice in late 19^th century of filling the sausages with dog meat, echoing the mid-19^th century phrase used to describe a sausage, “a bag of mystery”. Others, though, think that there is a more innocent explanation. In the mid-19^th century immigrant German butchers in the United States began selling variations of sausages, some of which were long and thin, rather reminiscent of dachshunds, and were called dachshund sausages. To protect sensibilities, they were later known as hot dogs.  

There is no definitive answer to the origin of their name nor, indeed, where the food originated, as their alternative names, frankfurters and wieners, suggest. Even the American National Hot Dog and Sausage Council suggests that the argument is too close to call. What is clear, though,  is that the modern hot dog is unlikely to contain dog meat, the stuffing of choice being pork.